Online Assessment

Assessment can be the bane of every teachers' existence. To some, teaching would be a breeze if there weren't countless hours of designing quizzes, marking tests, and inputing scores. The biggest thing that it comes down to is time. So why, in the 21st century do we not utilize technology more?

There are plenty of great online resources that can be used to create exams and quizzes, a list of which can be found here. I'm going to focus on two today, both of which I've mentioned before but now I'm going to go more in-depth. The first one is for summative assessment, the second for formative. The first is Google Docs. I have been using Google Docs for years and I was completely unaware that it had a quiz making feature. The feature, found under the free app SmartSheets, is very efficient. It is easy to use in that the quiz layout is simple: you can choose multiple choice, matching, short answer, etc. and quickly create a test that you can send out to your students. The best feature of this program is how it organizes the results. Rather than spending hours inputting scores in by hand, the program enters all of the information itself (after automatically marking the questions which you chose to have it mark). It not only tells you what the test scores are, but informs you which questions the most students got the wrong, which ones they right, and which students struggled where. For anyone who has ever designed a test, this knowledge is invaluable. It will calculate for you which questions are working and allow you to easily edit the exam so that they are improved for next time. It is a very effective summative tool.


For a formative tool I return to a website I've lauded before: Edmodo. I love the formative assessment of Edmodo because it's so easy. Students can respond to every assignment, quiz, or link posted by the teacher right as they encounter it. The teacher, of course, has the option to make these comments public or keep them private for their own records. The site also has a handy 'Reactions' feature where the students can respond by simply choosing an emoticon. Emoticon reactions range from 'I like it!' to 'This wasn't taught in class' to 'I'm bored'. The teacher receives these reactions in a nicely compiled list showing how many students and which students said what. This incredibly quick tool serves as a handy way to check where your students are at without a whole lot of effort.

Flipped Classrooms

I have discovered a new passion in teaching styles and that passion is called flipped classrooms. You can check out everything you need to know about it, including how to implement it, just by clicking on the link below.

http://prezi.com/5nmz-a_qhnsq/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Digital Citizenship

With all this talk about technology I feel it is important to touch on digital citizenship--about how to be a safe and respectful users of the Internet. Because the Internet wasn't around when my generation was born, we have grown up as it has grown. But there are students being born who have never known a world without Internet, and aren't immediately aware of how to conduct themselves appropriately. Using the Internet incorrectly can result in everything from cyber bullying and online stalking to much worse. The very relevant situation of Amanda Todd is a large reminder of how important it is that kids know how to use the internet not just effectively, but safely as well.

Teaching kids moral and ethical implications in the real world will help overflow this mentality onto the Web. You can use books like "What's in Your Bucket?" to teach young kids that there are consequences for what you say or do, and this includes the Internet as well. As the kids use the Internet more you can teach them about the permanence of the Internet, and how pictures and comments, even if they have been deleted, can still be used against you.

As a teacher using a computer in your classroom, there are some things you can do to make it a better experience for your kids. You can install an Adblock on to your computer to prevent racy images from accidentally popping up. You can also be aware of using copyright images or encouraging students to use websites that are illegitimate or possible dangerous. As a teacher, teaching digital citizenship is just as important, if not more important, in this day and age as any other subject.

For some extra info and helpful tips on digital citizenship you can check out here, here, or here.

Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 Tools are about taking the online classroom to the next level. Instead of one-way communication, Web 2.0 Tools allow for interaction between the creators and the users of the web tool. An excellent example of this is VoiceThread, which can be found at www.voicethread.com.

VoiceThread is the most interactive video service I have ever seen. It takes all the features that normally come with a whole classroom and places it within the program. Teachers can use it to make videos for their students and students can respond in many different ways. The videos can be a stream, a screenshot, or even a document. Students can comment through words, telephone, microphone, doodles, pictures, or even create their own reply videos. They can respond to videos in real time and have their comments attach to the video itself. They can make their own videos which they can easily create voice-overs for, and which other students can then interact with and respond to. This whole system is INCREDIBLY interactive and, for someone who wants to incorporate flipped classrooms into my own teaching style, I can see it as an invaluable tool. It promotes great differentiation through effective technology use.

A website designed by my peers to help explain VoiceThread can be found at http://ed4702voicethread.weebly.com. You can also check out the video below for a little more info:

Classroom Communication, Online!

The need for constant communication inside and outside the classroom is imperative in the modern day classroom. The more connection that students have with teachers, the more they are going to turn to the teacher as a resource (within reason, of course!). One of the best tools for online communication I have found is at www.edmodo.com.

Edmodo is a fantastic tool that is basically Facebook for the classroom. It takes all the fun social aspects of Facebook and puts them within a site that is loaded with easy-to-use educational tools for the teacher. You can use Edmodo to have secure classroom discussions, allow students and teachers access to assignments, file sharing and uploads, and grade book tracking. As a teacher you can easily make quizzes, polls, and assignments right on the website which can even be set to be automatically graded. It also works as a great formative assessment tool as students can respond to assignments and teacher comments easily and quickly.

The main drawback, as with any technology use in the classroom, is that it implies that students have internet access at home. While this is becoming less and less of an issue, it is so imperative that the teacher is aware of whether this is the case for each student. If even one student is stuck without Internet there is a large chance they will be singled out and be disadvantaged in the classroom.

For more information on Edmodo you can check out the website www.howtoedmodo.weebly.com or even watch this short video:

MOOCS!

Besides sounding like a fool when you pronounce them, MOOCS are pretty much the coolest things out there. MOOCS stands for Massive Online Open Courses aka democratic education. I absolutely love the concept of MOOCS because it brings education to anyone who has access to the Internet (which is not enough, but is definitely the right step towards free public-access education). These online courses come in many shapes in sizes, dealing with subjects across the globe. Students get to choose what they want to partake in instead of taking classes to fulfill degree requirements. This concept is almost threatening as a future teacher as it gives students access to skilled professionals who have perfected their courses over many many years. Of course, nothing quite beats the one-on-one interaction that teachers can offer, but technology is quickly changing that as programs like Skype and FaceTime grant that face-to-face interaction.

I love that MOOCS can be seen as a professional development tool as well. Here is a link for some great teacher-related MOOCS that could be used to improve yourself as an educator. As the end of my university career draws to a close I am already dreading not having the constant input of knowledge that classes can supply, but MOOCS help ease this. If you have the dedication and the time, there is no end of subjects that you can learn from bright and talented individuals.

While slightly different than your typical MOOC, I can't help but use this opportunity to plug one of my favourite learning tools, TED talks. TED, found here, is a free website that hosts hundreds of great speeches done by inspirational speakers all over the world. The subjects range from science to humanities, from art to innovation, from humour to inspiration. There is something for every type of learner on TED and the speakers are always interesting. It is a personal goal of mine to be asked to give a TED talk as some of my own personal heroes have had the honour to do so. I strongly encourage you to check the site out and use it as a tool for your own professional development. You can start with one of my favourite talks, found below.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is another response to the massive online world of interaction. It gives you the opportunity to organize and search for all of your interests. Obviously, like Twitter, this can be used as a PD tool, allowing you to follow fellow teachers and add your own input to the global pinboard.

I say pinboard because Pinterest is the most commonly known version of social bookmarking that I have heard of. Unfortunately Pinterest is very... female-centered so there are other websites like www.delicious.com or www.diigo.com that might be more your style. (Fun fact: there is a male retort to Pinterest called Manterest, but I wouldn't recommend using for any type of professional manner.) Though it's not often viewed as such, Reddit is also a great example of social bookmarking and one that I use on a daily basis. I can definitely see Reddit being used as a research tool for myself and my students in the future.

The most important thing with sites like these is knowing what works for you and cutting out the rest. It can be far too overwhelming to try and dip your toe in every single bookmarking site. Sites like these also have a tendency of being very addicting; there is no end to the amount of articles you can peruse or pictures you can 'like'. Knowing when to draw the line is probably the most helpful skill in dealing with social bookmarking sites.

Edit: I had to come back to this lacklustre post and note that my interest in Pinterest has substantially increased. After being shown how effective it can be as a way to collect all my teacher resources, I can't wait to start making my own boards. I have hundreds (literally) of bookmarks saved to my computer for different reasons, all of which are terribly unorganized. The ability to organize my bookmarks by category and include a little screenshot to accompany it is really appealing. The concept of having all of my teacher resources in one place is just too appealing (and heck, I'll thrown in a DIY board on there as well, just because it seems to be the cool thing to do.)

Digital Literacies

Digital literacies, the concept of teaching about and using technology, is at the forefront of education today. At least, it should be. Never before have we had the access to worldwide collaboration that we do now and it is important that we utilize that. It is important because it does our students a disservice on two fronts if we don’t: 

1. We are denying them resources, activities, and lessons that could drastically improve their ability to learn (and improve their chances of being life-long learners) and

2. We are not properly educating them on how to leave safe, effective digital footprints.

The need to address these two factors is, I would argue, more crucial than any of the subject curriculum combined. One specific of aspect of digital literacies is that of the 'remix'.

The concept of the remix, focused on in Doug Belshaw’s Ted Talk, is one that lies at the heart of the Internet and at our constantly growing, communal world. As Belshaw points out in his talk, we no longer live in an age where if we want to create a meme we must first capture it ourselves, print it out, alter it, and then mail it to a dozen other people who may appreciate it. We now have the power to use a picture that someone else has taken, add words through a program that someone else has created, and distribute it to millions through a website or social media source. Remixing is now at the heart of the creative and educational world—the ability to take what others have already done, contribute our own thoughts and ideas, and release it back into the world. This ability to collaborate is essential for teachers and students to understand and utilize. Teachers must learn to incorporate others’ ideas and activities to further enhance their teaching. Students must learn the importance of plagiarism rules while still appreciating the beauty of collaboration. The concept of ‘not having to reinvent the wheel’ has never been more relevant and it is important that students and teachers really grasp the implications of this movement. 

One shining example of this concept is found on www.hitrecord.org. Hit Record is my first time encountering such an excellent example of creative collaboration on the web. Members get to work together with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (are you sold yet?) to collaborate on any form of creative outlet-- music, film, art, novels, etc. They are all encouraged to steal from each other, contribute their own ideas, and put it back out to the community to continue growing and evolving. Once a project feels 'complete' Gordon-Levitt uses his Hollywood power to publish a collective work, giving no-name artists the opportunity to have their work published. The best part is that if you have helped contribute to the published work you actually receive a part of the income. This is an awesome example of the power that the Internet has given us to borrow, add, remix, and contribute to our ever-evolving culture.

For your own viewing pleasure you can check out my own personal favourite HitRecord collaboration below. The link for this video can be found here.

Tweet This

I'll be honest, I consider myself a fairly technologically advanced person. I spend the majority of my time when I'm not in class at home on my computer. I see the Internet as an endless resource of information that is incomparable to any other resource. But I have just never understood Twitter.

As an educator, I am now beginning understand how it can be a very useful tool. Professionally, the ability to collaborate with other educators around the world is an invaluable resource. It is amazing that there is a never-ending stream of resources and insight into the next educational development at your fingertips at any given time. In the past I have been overwhelmed by Twitter--there is so much information coming so fast, and the majority of it seems to be completely mundane and trivial. As I have now began to target my feed to show me education-focused material I am beginning to see how it has more use than informing me what my friend ate for breakfast (I mean, that's what I have Facebook for).

Twitter is also a great classroom tool. It encapsulates our changing world quite well: terabytes of information flying at you on a minutely basis, all in little 140 character snippets. What better example of our fast-thinking, ever-evolving culture than a website that emulates this perfectly. Because of this characteristic, Twitter is a great tool for getting students to become active members in this culture. They can contribute to this conversation--whether it's by following a political leader, summarizing novels read in class, commenting on current science events, etc.-- and leave their own imprint on the viral world. For some great uses of Twitter in the classroom, click here.

Twitter also comes with a great accompanying program called Tweet Deck. Once you sign in with your Twitter account, Tweet Deck allows you to arrange the people you follow, easily access your message, and organize the hashtags you wish to follow. I find Tweet Deck a lot more welcoming than Twitter in that I can see what I want to see how I want to see it. This could be an effective tool in the classroom for the purposes of keeping your students focused and on task.

Online Presentations

There are two things that I would like to discuss in regards to online presentations. The first is Google Docs. Google Docs is a great program that I believe is under-utilized in the classroom. The convenience of collaboration in the same document is something that I have found extremely helpful as a student and is a tool that has helped streamline many of my group projects. Students can access this file wherever they are so you never have to worry about one group mate forgetting their section at home leaving the rest of the students high and dry. You can see who contributed what and when, so as a teacher accessing the file you have a better idea of what occurred during the creation process of the assignment. As a free program that only requires a username and password, I wish more teachers incorporated Google Docs into their classrooms.

The second concept that I would like to mention is the flipped classroom. This is a concept that I had honestly never heard about before, but after having read a bit about it it makes total sense to me. The concept is basically that teachers provide the students with a video lecture that they can view while at home so that by the time they come in the classroom they are ready to tackle what would normally have been 'home' work. I don't think this concept is flawless as it takes away the adjusted teaching techniques that naturally arise in a classroom but there are certainly some advantages. Students who struggle focusing in class can watch the videos whenever they want, going back and repeating the lecture as many times as they need to in order to grasp the concept. The lecture is an attainable goal that students can complete--they are no longer overwhelmed by what often feels like 'endless' homework. Once in the classroom, the teacher is free to help students with their work and ensure that everyone is ready to head on to the next lesson. I'm really intrigued by this concept and hope to utilize it, at least to some extent, in my future classroom. For an interesting infographic on the flipped classroom, click here. Or, to find out more about it by the guys who started it all, you can click here.

Thoughts on Self Directed Learning

Self Directed Learning, or SDL, is a growing technique in the field of education. I have experienced online SDL myself and have experienced the positive and negative aspects that come with an online, SDL course.

Let's begin with the negatives. The greatest negative aspects that I encountered with online SDL were the lack of community and the ability to procrastinate. Not having a physical classroom definitely contributed to my lack of motivation in the course; I felt less engaged because I was not physically responsible to my teacher and fellow classmates. I also found it very easy to procrastinate in the class. When there is not a physical teacher reminding you of what is expected on a class-by-class basis, those expectations become less important

While there are definite negative aspects to online SDL, there are huge benefits as well. The convenience and flexibility of an online course are by far its best selling features. The fact that I was able to write my responses in the comfort of my own home whenever I wanted was fantastic. This is excellent for student motivation-- I could write when I was feeling up to it, not at a pre-determined time of day that would normally have me tired or non-enganged. 

Liyan Song and Janette Hills' article "A Conceptual Model for Understanding Self-Directed Learning in Online Environments" states that learners can direct themselves better in an area in which they are familiar. I encountered this in my own education; I was much more keen on taking an online course on something that I had some experience in. The thought of taking a class that was completely foreign to me was daunting. Online courses are excellent for self-motivation, but sometimes the vastness of the Internet and its resources can be enough to quell a students' motivation.

Online SDL is also great for students who are visual learners or who take a little bit more time to process comments and instructions. It can be extremely advantageous to be able to see the teacher's comments in written format-- to be able to return to the comment and review it whenever the student feels this is necessary. It holds everyone involved in the forum to a higher level of accountability. Yes, there is some personalization that is lost in the time difference between comments, but the insight that comes from having to type out rather than just spew out answers usually outweighs this.

Ultimately, the greatest advantage to online SDL is that students take their learning into their own hands. Hill and Song note that students involved in SDL used resources more effectively and had more control of their learning. One of the best signs of a good teacher is one whom can make their students passionate about their own learning. Real learning occurs when a student cares about the process, rather than just the final outcome (i.e. grade). In the online SDL classes that I have taken, I definitely found that I learned more for the sake of learning rather than to just achieve my final mark. Online SDL encourages students to be responsible for their own education, which I believe is the most effective form of education.

You can check out a great resource on self directed learning by clicking here.


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Song, A & Hill, J. R. (2007) A Conceptual Model for Understanding Self-Directed Learning in Online Environments. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 6(1) Retrieved from:http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/PDF/6.1.3.pdf

Blogging in Education

Blogging is just one more technique where teachers can use technology to their advantage in the classroom. Teaching students how to create and maintain a blog has many advantages. It gives teachers and opportunity to teach online safety in a monitored setting. It is a good organizational tool for both students and teachers. It not only allows absent students to be present in the classroom, but also allows parents to have a glimpse into what is going on as well. It reduces the need for paper in the classroom, which reduces the risk of lost or destroyed homework. It presents the students with a setting where they can be comfortable; students who may not be prone to talking in the class may find their voice online. It provides a forum where students can discuss and colloborate and the teacher can comment directly on their work. It encourages students to read and write and gives them pride knowing that their work is actually being published and is viewable by anyone in the world. I have had a blog of my own for over five years and I know that it has played a substantial role in my own development as a writer. I am encouraged to write because I know that someone somewhere will read it.

Blogs don’t just help students either. Teachers can utilize blogging to communicate with each other as well. Successful education blogs are overflowing with great resources and suggestions; teachers from around the world are able to help each other out. They can share ideas, voice concerns, and address issues, all in simple and easily accessible manner. In a world where technology is so prominent, I think that teachers absolutely need to captilize on this tool.

There are hundreds of ways that blogs can be used effectively in the classroom: blogs to showcase poetry, to establish timelines, to host a book club, etc. For a great list of classroom blog ideas, click here or here!

Nice to Meet You!

My name is Michael Willems and I am in the Education faculty at the University of Lethbridge. I am in my fourth year and hope to be graduating in 2014. I am originally from Calgary, AB, but I love living in Lethbridge now. I am an English major with a minor in Psychology. When I am not out traveling—which is something I am constantly attempting to remedy—I am at home working on my own creative writing projects. I have a passion for spoken word poetry and for getting people excited about literature. I work at a bookstore, which is a dream job as it allows me to feed my obsession for reading (by funding and providing me with the material). I am also passionate about music, both playing it (trumpet and vocals) and listening to it. 

I grew up with a father who taught computers and English and passed those skills on to me, a mother who cut hair for seniors who taught me the need for compassion and empathy, and two sisters who taught me how to come outside of my bookworm shell and socialize with the world. My environment has had a really positive effect on my desire for learning, and I hope one day to positively affect my students' environment as well.

Welcome to my blog!